Hi. I'm baaaaack. I know summer is over and these pictures are really from the very beginning of summer, but hey, better late than never, right? I cannot overestimate how busy it is to do what we are doing with the kids, farm, animals and then home school. There literally is just barely enough hours in the day to do what needs to be done and then maybe one or two other things? I love it, but I assure you, I'm not binge watching Netflix and neglecting the blog. I'm just chugging along, doing my best to get the job done.
The first thing that jumps out at me that has changed is that Forrest went back to the rescue on September 10th. He was too much horse for us (in size and in need of training) so we hope he finds a great home with more confident and skilled riders.
A professional shipper picked him up in a huge trailer with lots of other horses at 10:30 PM at night. It was strange, but apparently, this is what people do in the horse world when they don't have a trailer or the time to transport the horses themselves. We fall into both categories.
Farm life is much easier without him in that we have less stalls to clean and less poop in general. I'm super happy with this decision. We will hold off on getting another horse unless we come upon a pony for Stella and Nash in the near future. 😏
I can also tell by the grass that these pictures were from early summer. Our grass is struggling right now. The hens are living the good life these days because we re-homed our rooster a few weeks ago. Another great decision on my part! I hope I don't strain my arm, patting myself on the back. Ha!
The Buff Orpington rooster that snuck through was a bully to the younger 3 kids. I put him on Craigslist and a nice, older couple came to pick him up. I warned them that he is not for a family with small children because he is a butt.
This is the feral cat that's decided to call our farm home. His name is Patches and he's mostly antisocial unless he gets desperate for human touch which does happen occasionally and then he'll let us pet him.
Mark fixed our creek fence so the horses can "free range" down by the barn and pasture. It's all closed in so they are free to come and go. They seem to like it, but it's hard on the grass I have found.
Did I mention we picked up to kittens from our homeschool friends?!!! Scout (with the white nose) and Ginger. They are the sweetest, best cats EVER. We love, love, love them to pieces!
We got them at the end of July when they were already 3 months old so now they are 6 months and we've had them spayed and neutered two weeks ago. We are not hatching any kittens on this farm if we can help it! 😊
Speaking of hatching, we got another dozen chicks the day after we got the kittens. Grass does not grow under our feet!
The kittens are a little too interested in the chicks so they had to be supervised closely. Very closely.
We got these babies from a reputable hatchery near my parents house. They "should" all be girls this time.
Ellie loves the kittens and the chicks!!
The goats are great weed eaters, it's just too bad they are so dumb.
Stella started going to speech therapy once a week this summer. The lady we found happens to be the bestie of a friend of ours from church and we had no idea!! Angie is wonderful and Stella LOVES her which is so helpful.
Sadly, Stella's reading tutor moved this summer so we are plugging away at home with a reading programed that's meant for children with dyslexia and learning issues. So far so good! We are saving a TON of money, but Stella has really missed seeing Kim twice a week.
Our garden was pretty awesome this summer. All was really good until the Squash Beetles showed up and shriveled our pumpkin, zucchini and yellow neck squash vines. I was so disappointed. The strawberries are starting to turn finally and the carrots are ready to pick. I think the best was having fresh tomatoes. Delish!! We will definitely be gardening next year!
This was from Ellie's 3rd birthday party at the end of July. We were going to have a party at Ellie's sister's grandparents', but a health issue came up suddenly and we had to regroup. Home it is! Does it strike anyone else as ironic that the mermaid is fishing?!! 😄
So we hired an attorney and went to court (August 2nd) with a motion to intervene in the Children Services case that is currently open and we were shot down. The county told us mintues before court that they thought they could remain neutral on the issue of us intervening, but the prosecutor said they had to oppose us. Both bio parents' attorneys obviously opposed us and then in a move we didn't see coming, Ellie's GAL (her attorney) threw us under the bus too. She was the one that told us to hire an attorney and then when the magistrate asked her opinion, she said she didn't think it was a good idea. Moving on...
Now we are *just* waiting another year to see how this all plays out. Bio dad showed up at court saying he wanted back in the game after a 7 month absence, but then has failed to contact the agency to get things going again. Thank God!! If you wonder how he can be absent and then show up, it's just the way it is when you are the biological parents.
Ellie's bio mom has gotten 8 hour unsupervised visits on the weekend and I'm transporting again. I thought this would be the most painful, awful thing I could imagine, but it's actually been good. I don't know how this is all going to go down, but I'm feeling peaceful knowing that God is in control. Ellie has fun with her so that I can appreciate.
We did a little fishing at Ellie's party.
Scout!!! Love that cat.
Ginger is a sweetheart. She's a little saint for putting up with Ellie picking her up all the time.
I also took a few pictures of Stephanie, Brian, and Blake during the party. 😍😍😍
Brooke made Ellie a cake!
Princess Pouty Pants got a sandbox for her birthday which she loves. The girl is a dirt, mud, sand magnet. This is at least a little bit cleaner.
At 3, Ellie talks in complete sentences, loves to crawl around on all fours pretending to be either a cat or a horse. Her favorite movies are Frozen and Spirit, Stallion of the Cimarron. She's finally potty trained (except for overnight and naps...which I can live with)! She is in a terrible, sneaky phase right now which is awful because she is so smart. We have to have an eye on her at all times or it doesn't end well. I know it will pass, but she's so HARD to deal with right now.
We had a play date with some friends from our church. They happen to have a farm too which my kids loved. Well, maybe the love the 4 wheeler...
We picked apples from their orchard which was an educational and fun experience.
They (The Hick's family) have a few cows their boys' show at the county fair. The Hicks happen to also be friends with our new hay guy. Best hay ever and it turns out to be from a friend of a friend! God is funny like that!
I love to look at cows, but I hope to never own one.
I've got pictures for days to share, but unfortunately, they are mostly from my iPhone. When I pick up my real camera, it's few and far between because I'm too busy working to stand back and take pictures. I know I've said this before, but I'm on Instagram now as Creekside_craziness and I post pictures there everyday, multiple times a day. You are missing out!!
That's also been a strike against blogging that I can quickly post a picture or two with a caption and I get my photo/life sharing fix for the day. This way I really am not motivated to sit down in front of the computer for a few hours to edit pictures and record our lives. I don't know how this is all going to play out, but for now, I'm going to try to play catch up. We will see...
xoxo,
Katie
